Cross-Country Road Trip With a Stop in Rosemont, IL

[chelseafc11]

I don't think I'll bee too long-winded, but here we go!

My wife and I went to visit her Grandmother in Los Angeles - we drove from Western Massachusetts to LA and back in about 19 days. Along the way we saw a lot of cool stuff and I even got to stop at the National for about 4 hours and this thread will (unfortunately) be much different from my post last year. I will share some pictures of the trip and if you don't care, just scroll past Below the pictures of the road trip are the pictures of all the Galactics I have snagged in the last month, including some from the National


First thing we did was drive the majority (~400 miles) of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here is one picture although I have tons more. Beautiful green scenery:



After that we stopped in Memphis, Nashville, Austin, and finally San Antonio which allowed me to visit the home of a team that has won me over and I willingly claim that they are my favorite:



From there we went to White Sands National Park in New Mexico. It is like a different planet there...



On a whim, we stopped at Joshua Tree National Park. I didn't want to go because I just wanted to get to our destination of Los Angeles. I am glad I stopped. Again, it is like a different planet there as well, but that is coming from someone who has lived in the Northeast all his life.



Next we went to another beautiful place - Zion National Park in Utah. This was one of the most beautiful places we went:


Next we hit the Grand Canyon. This picture below, I crap you not, is supposed to show an unobstructed, endless view of the Grand Canyon. The clouds were so thick that you could not see ANYTHING.



We waited HOURS and finally the clouds cleared:


My favorite picture I took of my wife as the sun came out and the clouds started lifting:


Then EARLY in the morning (woke up at 4AM) we drove to a different point of the Grand Canyon and watched the sunrise:


On our way back we stopped in St. Louis and I realized how (relatively) close we were to Chicago (Rosemont) and I said F that, I am going to the National. My wife obliged and I only ended up spending 4 hours there because I bought too many Galactics, too quickly, haha. I got more than half of the Icons Galactic set from one deal and I got three new cards for the 150 card base set. As always, if you have any Galactics, let me know! Enjoy the pictures!

Hal

















New Wave




Rookie Revolution


New Set Adds




Duplicates

[kukocitb]

Bummed I didn't get a chance to meet you at the national but I am glad you were able to make it.

[ThoseBackPages]

Great write up!

thank you for sharing

[Firerunner4]

Awesome story and incredible pictures

[gslayton]

What a trip! Hope to make one across the west very soon. And stop at every card shop possible ha. Solid move going from St Louis straight up to the National!

[DajuanWagner]

Hal, wish I could have caught up with you at the National. You were sorely missed. Hopefully, we can all meet up in Cleveland........

[3Bucks]

Great stories, pics and pick ups! Love those Bucks cards on the Revolution setting!

[mindcycle]

Whoa! Great pictures all around in this post. The pictures of those galactics look nice!


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[almostkinda]

Awesome trip! Congrats.


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[CastleBeachCards]

I don't collect outside of the 90's......but you know what i like about this set?
They made all the players images look like they were playing from the same generation/era. Instead of grainy crappy photos from the 60's, or black and white photo's of the same player's, they had them all in color/high resolution.......and i swear added some sweat to some of them. lol

Originally Posted by chelseafc11

I don't think I'll bee too long-winded, but here we go!

My wife and I went to visit her Grandmother in Los Angeles - we drove from Western Massachusetts to LA and back in about 19 days. Along the way we saw a lot of cool stuff and I even got to stop at the National for about 4 hours and this thread will (unfortunately) be much different from my post last year. I will share some pictures of the trip and if you don't care, just scroll past Below the pictures of the road trip are the pictures of all the Galactics I have snagged in the last month, including some from the National


First thing we did was drive the majority (~400 miles) of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here is one picture although I have tons more. Beautiful green scenery:



After that we stopped in Memphis, Nashville, Austin, and finally San Antonio which allowed me to visit the home of a team that has won me over and I willingly claim that they are my favorite:



From there we went to White Sands National Park in New Mexico. It is like a different planet there...



On a whim, we stopped at Joshua Tree National Park. I didn't want to go because I just wanted to get to our destination of Los Angeles. I am glad I stopped. Again, it is like a different planet there as well, but that is coming from someone who has lived in the Northeast all his life.



Next we went to another beautiful place - Zion National Park in Utah. This was one of the most beautiful places we went:


Next we hit the Grand Canyon. This picture below, I crap you not, is supposed to show an unobstructed, endless view of the Grand Canyon. The clouds were so thick that you could not see ANYTHING.



We waited HOURS and finally the clouds cleared:


My favorite picture I took of my wife as the sun came out and the clouds started lifting:


Then EARLY in the morning (woke up at 4AM) we drove to a different point of the Grand Canyon and watched the sunrise:


On our way back we stopped in St. Louis and I realized how (relatively) close we were to Chicago (Rosemont) and I said F that, I am going to the National. My wife obliged and I only ended up spending 4 hours there because I bought too many Galactics, too quickly, haha. I got more than half of the Icons Galactic set from one deal and I got three new cards for the 150 card base set. As always, if you have any Galactics, let me know! Enjoy the pictures!

Hal

















New Wave




Rookie Revolution


New Set Adds




Duplicates

[chelseafc11]

Originally Posted by kukocitb

Bummed I didn't get a chance to meet you at the national but I am glad you were able to make it.

I am a bummed as well. I expected you, Randy and the Gang to be there for most of the show. I saw all the steals from bdrr and others and it made me jealous I wasn't able to go through all the bargain boxes I possibly could. Oh well. I am tentatively planning to be at Cleveland next year, hopefully you can make as well!

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

Great write up!

thank you for sharing

No problem, thanks for reading!

Originally Posted by Firerunner4

Awesome story and incredible pictures

Thank you for the kind words about my pictures. I take pride in them!

Originally Posted by gslayton

What a trip! Hope to make one across the west very soon. And stop at every card shop possible ha. Solid move going from St Louis straight up to the National!

I told my wife that I wanted to stop at every card shop possible, but with what we were doing it was mostly inconvenient to do so, unfortunately. She totally supports me collecting, I just couldn't justify going out of the way so much when we had reservations in different cities and a timeline to adhere to.

Originally Posted by DajuanWagner

Hal, wish I could have caught up with you at the National. You were sorely missed. Hopefully, we can all meet up in Cleveland........

Same Randy. It is always a pleasure to see you. I will do my best to go to Cleveland. I hope you are planning on going as well.

Originally Posted by 3Bucks

Great stories, pics and pick ups! Love those Bucks cards on the Revolution setting!

Thanks! It is my second Giannis and I needed a Jabari for my set and I managed to pick up two in about a week. That is how collecting goes, haha.

Originally Posted by mindcycle

Whoa! Great pictures all around in this post. The pictures of those galactics look nice!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, I have scanned them to show my complete progress, but I can bring myself to post the scans. Scans do them a disservice!

Originally Posted by almostkinda

Awesome trip! Congrats.


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Thanks!

[SteveO21]

Sounds like you had a blast. The Galactics look amazing as well.